Priority areas and strategies...The role of UNODC is to promote adherence by Myanmar to the drug, crime and terrorism conventions
and protocols, and to assist in bringing about a level of technical capability in Myanmar to sufficiently meet
the obligations under the conventions and related UN mandates. The main vehicles for this are advocacy
and technical advice accompanied by supporting resources. UNODC has thus provided assistance to
Myanmar in drafting legislation on anti-money laundering and mutual legal assistance, which came into
effect in 2002 and 2004, respectively, and is providing support to the drafting of anti-human trafficking
legislation.
UNODC aims to change the debate on drug policy from a traditional repressive focus with emphasis on
top-down approaches, towards a participatory approach, developing and empowering local communities
and strengthening civil society. Because current interventions are small compared to the scale of the
priority problems in Myanmar, UNODC in all aspects of its work focuses on expanding expertise and
assistance through partnerships with other UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
As the Government uses its law enforcement and judicial apparatus to suppress political dissent, UNODC
is limiting and carefully targeting its operational assistance to these sectors to avoid unintentional support
to political suppression. This severely reduces the possibilities to address manufacturing and trafficking of
heroin and ATS. Therefore, a tangible UNODC objective has not been identified at the national level for
this problem. Myanmar is, however, benefiting from UNODC support to counter illicit trafficking of drugs at
the regional level. Given the transnational nature of Myanmar’s drug and crime problems, UNODC works
with the Myanmar government to strengthen regional agreements and mechanisms to enhance
cooperation in law enforcement and alternative development. This includes the ACCORD Plan of Action,
as well as support for the 1993 Greater Mekong Region MoU..."